This invention relates to bottle carriers of the type fashioned from one or more planar sheets of paperboard, the carrier having a plurality of openings for receiving respective bottles. Each bottle receiving opening has a plurality of radially outwardly extending fingers defined by cuts through the paperboard. In general, such carriers have been used largely for cans. Examples of constructions of this general type are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,834,750 issued to Gauntlett, 3,156,358 issued to Randrup, and 5,125,506 issued to Galbierz et al.
While planar bottle carriers have been relatively successful for carrying cans, such as soft drink cans or the like, they have not been widely accepted for carrying plastic bottles. Generally, an annular flange often on the neck of such bottles or the screw caps on the bottles are so much larger in diameter than the diameter of the openings in the planar carrier that it is often difficult to remove a bottle from its respective opening.